Cross-border hiring

Out-of-town cross border hiring is known to be happening in Doncaster through a small number of the larger Private Hire operators, which is giving the local trade concerns. Cross-border hiring means trade is taken away from locally licensed drivers who are more regulated. Wolverhampton is the only known cross-border licensed vehicles to be operating and it is unknown how many drivers work with operators in Doncaster.

Cross-border Licensing Authorities

Below is a table of two cross-border licensing agencies. Doncaster has a total of 1,079 licensed drivers who are trying to protect their trade against the 101,304 licensed drivers that are out-of-town drivers.

The same problem is occurring up and down the country following the Deregulation Act 2015. Read here.

Help save the sector

Majors towns and cities are being flooded with out-of-town drivers who are new to the industry, not licensed by the Local Authority in which they operate and are then subject to a lack of choice about their working conditions because they can only work for regional operators who are the only operators who apply for such licenses. The drivers are then subject to the terms and conditions of a limited number of one or two operators locally who then exploit the drivers. A traditional Taxi or Private Hire driver has choice over who they work for locally. The drivers licensed with their own Local Authority usually lives in the local area and has more local experience and local knowledge from their years of being a cabbie.

Complain or campaign?

Drivers up and down the country are campaigning about a whole list of working conditions and problems and the complaints and campaign differ depending on whether the driver is an out-of-town driver or is a locally licensed driver impacted by out-of-town drivers.

Known Issues

• Cross-border drivers have pay disputes
• Cross-border drivers are saturating local markets and do not have local knowledge.
• Regulation of cross-border drivers is not the responsibility of the Local Authority and they have no budget to manage them.
• Owner drivers of wheel chair accessible vehicles are leaving the market due to saturation, which is the reverse effect of making accessibility an option for passengers.

Stopping cross-border

There have been several attempts to have the matter discussed in the House of Commons and undo the legislation that makes this possible. Local Authorities have no say or powers over cross-border and the only way local cabbies will see a return is by a change in legislation.

Sign the petition

Visit: Petition to stop cross border hiring, National Campaign.